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Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening began in 1720 and lasted many, many years. Ministers from various evangelical Protestant denominations supported the Great Awakening. Additionally, pastoral styles began to change. In the late colonial period, most pastors read their sermons, which were theologically dense and advanced a particular theological argument or interpretation. Leaders of the Awakening such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield had little interest in merely engaging parishioners' minds. -
French and Indian War
The British reconized that their lack of unity was a dangerous weakness. Both the French and British began making plans for another war. Each side had their own advantages. During this event, the French were fighting eachother for their land. The British had tried to build a fort at the Fork of Ohio River; but the French drove off the British troops and built Fort Dusquesne on the site. Washington had his troops build a small, crude fort, surrounded by the French Forces. -
French and Indian War
It was important because it lasted seven years until 1763 and the British gained all of the colonies of the French in North America. -
Proclamation of 1763
Pontiac's Rebellion causes great concern in the British government. Leaders feared that more fighting would take place on the frontier if colonists continued to move onto Indian lands. To avoid more loss, of life, the British issued the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation banned only further British colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains creating a dividing line between colonial and Indian lands. Some felt that Britian should allow the colonies to expand rapidly following -
Proclamation of 1763
France's defeat. This event is important because Britian issued the Proclamation of 1763, -
Sugar Act
During this event, Parliment decided to raise money by taxing the colonists. In 1764, Parliment passed the Sugar Act, which set duties, or taxes on molasses, and sugar imported by colonists. It was important because Parliment wa designed specifically to raise money for the colonists. The act was to prevent colonies from paying taxes. This event was important because Parliment didn't want taxes anymore so they put taxes on sugar and molasses. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was where colonists had to pay for an official stamp, or seal whenever they bought paper items such as newspapers, pamphlets, licences, legal documents, and playing cards. The colonists were affected. Colonists who refused to buy stamps could be tried in the hated vise- admoralty courts. After all, in Britian, people already paid taxes such as this one, to cover the cost of wars and other government expences. -
Townshed Acts
In June 1767, Parliment passes the Townshed Acts, which placed duties on imported glass, lead, paints, paper and tea. The Crown used the revenue from these duties to pay military expences and the salaries of colonial governors. British customs agents used writs of assistance. Colonists feared that the royal officials would not be accountable to colonial authorities and did not have the best interests of the colonists at heart. Britian had been unable to control the smuggling that was common -
Townshed Acts
that the Townshed Acts took too much power away from Colonial courts and legislatures and gave it to royal courts. This event was important because Briish customs agents used writs of assistance so the royal officials would not be accountable. -
Boston massacre
The Boston Massacre was important because 5 people were killed by accident. When some of the soldiers fired into the crowd, and were about to fire there canons, they killed 5 people. It amusually shot the crowd. -
Tea Act
Brittish officials estimated that despite the continuing boyscott, colonists bought several millian pounds of tea each year, much of it smuggled into the colonists. Company officials pointed out that they could charge the lowest prices even after consumers paid the tea tax. Colonists were conserned that if the Brittish east indian company gained a monopoly on the Tea Trade. This event was important because The Brittish guessd the price of continuing boyscott colonists and several million pounds -
Boston Tea Party
Three ships loaded with British tea arrived in Boston Harbor in November 1773. Liberty demanded that the ships leave without unloading the cargoes. The captains afraid to anger the sons of liberty decided to buy their ships at anhor in the harbor for weeks. On December 16, a group of colonists disquised asIndians crept on the tea ships. After dumping 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
As punishment for the Tea Party, in the spring of 1774, Parliment passed the coerclue acts, which colonists called Intolerable Acts. In December 1773, a group of colonists destroyed several tons of tea in Boston, Massachusetts, an act that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. The colonists partook in this action because Parliament had taken away the taxes of tea distributed by the British East India Company in order to save the company from bankruptcy, which made British tea less expensive. -
Battle of Lexington/Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. About 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were given secret orders. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 13, 1775, the leaders of the colonial forces besieging Boston learned that the British generals were planning to send troops out from the city to occupy the unoccupied hills surrounding the city. In response to this intelligence, 1,200 colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill, constructed an earthen redoubt on Breed's Hill, and built lightly fortified lines across most of the Charlestown Peninsula. -
Common Sense
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. Common Sense presented the American colonists with an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, which was to be ready when congress voted on independence. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne's campaign to divide New England from the southern colonies had started well, but slowed due to logistical problems. -
Battle of Yorktown
On April 5, the IV Corps of Brig. Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes made initial contact with Confederate defensive works at Lee's Mill, an area McClellan expected to move through without resistance. Magruder's ostentatious movement of troops back and forth convinced the Federals that his works were strongly held. As the two armies fought an artillery duel, reconnaissance indicated to Keyes the strength and breadth of the Confederate fortifications, and he advised McClellan against assaulting them. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of these, and the negotiations which produced all four treaties, see Peace of Paris (1783). On September 3, Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and (provisionally) with the Netherland
